Does a CPU work with any RAM speed

cpumemorymotherboardperformance

I am going to upgrade my girlfriend's desktop. I will replace the motherboard(which is burnt), the CPU and the RAM.

I have decided to use the Intel Pentium G3220 CPU, the MSI H81M-E33 motherboard and the Kindston HyperX blu RAM.

The thing is I don't know which speed to chose: 1333MHz or 1600MHz. A guy told me that this cpu doesn't support 1600MHz speed, but I think that this has to do with the motherboard.

Is it possible that this cpu cannot work with 1600MHz?

Best Answer

Yes, that CPU can work with a memory module rated at 1600 MHz.

The CPU does not choose what the memory is recognized, the motherboard does. The CPUs will run at whatever the motherboard tells them too. They just don't officially support more than 1333MHz because when they first came out, that was really the best that was commonly available and Intel didn't care to change the specs. The Intel CPUs will support pretty much any frequency that you throw at them, albeit you need to keep the voltages in check.

Always go for the least expensive and lower-rated modules, as you'll only see very minimal improvements when you go otherwise (unless you run specialty apps that require serious hardware).

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